Acute cardiac care & resuscitationCohort study
Does the initial description of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest given by callers contacting Emergency Medical Services contain key indicator words which can be used to support appropriate resource deployment?
- retrospective review
- single English Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Authors' conclusion
Analysis of information volunteered by an EMS caller may be able to predict clinical outcome, particularly for patients who have resuscitation withheld on EMS arrival. Current protocols may not consider this information and could result in high acuity responses for patients who are unlikely to survive. This study of unstructured call narratives should supplement existing practice to assist with resource deployment.
Study context
- Population
- Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest electronic health records, with call data linked to clinical records and outcome at 30 days, 01/04/2020 to 31/03/2023
- Participants
- 37,532 OHCA electronic health records
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
'Lifeless' descriptors identified with stronger association with resuscitation being withheld
Thirteen
Calls with these descriptors that still received the highest level of EMS response
56.6%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Terms associated with survival to 30 days
- Terms identified with a better association with survival to 30 days, often describing symptoms e.g. "chest pain" or "sweating"
- Four
- Chi-square analysis p < 0.001
Original publication
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it